Electronic mail, or e-mail, and instant messages (collectively e-mail) have become prevalent in today's society. Their popularity derives mostly from the fact that the days of delay of the typical post office have been replaced with the minimal delay of the electronic post office. Furthermore, e-mail knows no geographical boundaries. People can communicate in writing across the globe almost instantaneously.
However, e-mail has drawbacks. For example, although some e-mail programs alert recipients that new e-mail messages have been downloaded from the e-mail server through the use of sounds, such as a chime, these programs do not inform the recipient of the e-mail's sender or subject, thereby forcing the recipient to look at the computer screen to find such information. This could be time consuming and bothersome if the recipient is involved in some other task. Further, if not logged onto the e-mail server, a recipient of an e-mail message may not know that a certain message is waiting to be download from the e-mail server. As such, hours and perhaps days may pass while the message is left sitting in the mail server queue unread. In business transactions, such a delay could be extremely detrimental. Also, a user may receive information via e-mail but may not have the appropriate equipment to access it immediately. Therefore, he is left with the option of eschewing the e-mail entirely or trying to find a computer or other similar device which will allow him to read the e-mail. As such, it would be advantageous to be able to announce the receipt of e-mails.